A Democrat Health Care Nightmare

House Democrats on Friday finally unveiled their long-awaited 852-page health care “reform” legislation (pdf) that engineers a government takeover of medicine.

The bill is a staggeringly expensive bureaucratic nightmare that Democrats will try to defend in a series of hearings beginning this week.

As details of this leviathan bill begin to emerge, what is becoming increasingly clear is this plan, if passed, will cost American jobs. Democrats would use the cost of a business’ annual payroll to define whether or not a small business is subject to a new eight percent federal tax. Only those with less than 10 employees on average would be spared the onerous new tax.

Subjecting these small businesses who employ 47.3 million people and provide $1.7 trillion in wages annually to the Democrats’ new tax will place these jobs and wages at risk.

Additional employer mandates that will require some small businesses to offer employee coverage would cost another 4.7 million jobs according to a model from the President’s own economic advisors.

The House Democrats’ plan also places mandates on every individual American citizen to buy health insurance or pay a hefty penalty to Washington equal to almost two percent of their annual income.

Of course, if you can’t afford to pay for the coverage, you would be forced into the government-run system that will make health care more expensive and ration care based on age, cost and survivability rates.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has admitted that their health care plan would be financed by raising taxes.

There have been reports of a whole slew of new taxes on individuals being considered, from a national sales tax to additional taxes on cigarettes, new taxes on sodas, and raising taxes on everyone making more than $200,000 a year.

According to news reports, even the White House has admitted that statements made by the President promising you can keep your current health care coverage if you like it shouldn’t be taken literally.

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the House Republican leader, talked Friday about the Democrat plan. “This plan is nothing less than a government takeover of health care, and families and small businesses who are already footing the bill for Washington’s reckless spending binge will not support it,” Boehner said.

“Raising taxes, rationing care, and empowering government bureaucrats -- not patients and doctors -- to make key medical decisions is not ‘reform.’

This plan will make health care more expensive, reduce the quality of care for millions of families and small businesses, cost American jobs, and force untold millions of Americans off their current plans and into a government-run nightmare operated by federal bureaucrats.”

- Connie Hair